"Where Eclipse had a litle more action, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is more of a love story," Summit Entertainment exec Richie Fay said Sunday. "It's got a wedding and a honeymoon, and I think that appeals more to the young ladies than to the young men."

Sure enough, after growing its male audience with all-out vampire-and-wolf war in Eclipse, the studio's latest was back in classic fanggirl form. Fully 80 percent of Breaking Dawn: Part 1's opening-weekend moviegoers was female, exit-polling data showed, up from 65 percent for Eclipse.

Or, to look at it another way, only 20 percent of the new film's audience was male, down from a franchise-high 35 percent for the 2010 installment.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1's audience was also the oldest yet for a Twilight sequel, with 60 percent of ticket buyers able to legally calm their nerves with stiff drinks following the unblissful birth of Edward and Bella's vampire baby.

Fay didn't dismiss the possibility that a bloody scene like that, not to mention prerelease rumor of R-rated sex, caused some parents (read: mothers) to bar their tweens (read: girls) from theaters.

"Parents have their trepidations," Fay said. "Maybe they'll see it first."

(Those who have seen it, the exec said, are telling the studio that the novel's gory source material was "very tastefully done.")

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 grossed an estimated $139.5 million Friday-Sunday. It didn't come in at the high end of sky-high expectations, and, unlike its three predessors, it didn't rate at least an A-minus from opening-weekend audiences. (It was judged a B-plus.) But it did end up as the fifth-biggest debuting movie in Hollywood history, andit did outdraw Eclipse.